WASHINGTON, July 7, 2014 - The World Bank Group committed a record-breaking *$15.3 billion to Sub Saharan Africa’s development in fiscal year 2014 (July 2013 to June 2014) supporting shared prosperity... Show More + in the Region and focusing on increased efforts to reduce poverty.“Africa is making significant progress and at the World Bank we are stepping up the momentum to innovate and think big in order to help our clients achieve their development goals. We applaud the improved policies and prudent fiscal decisions many governments have made and we will continue to provide financing through loans and grants, technical expertise and to mobilize our unique convening power to leverage the resources of other development partners,” said Makhtar Diop, World Bank Vice President for the Africa Region.The Bank Group continued its strong commitment to Africa delivering $10.6 billion in new lending for 160 projects this fiscal year (FY14). These commitments included a new record of $10.2 billion in zero-int Show Less -

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2014 – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved US$150 million to finance 19 university-based Centers of Excellence in seven countries in West and Central Africa.... Show More + These competitively selected centers will receive funding for advanced specialized studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-related disciplines, as well as in agriculture and health.This landmark Africa Centers of Excellence (ACE) project, which will equip young Africans with new scientific and technical skills, will be financed through IDA* credits to the governments of Nigeria (US$70 million), Ghana (US$24 million), Senegal (US$16 million), Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Togo (US$8 million each). The Gambia will also receive a US $2 million credit and a US$1 million grant to provide higher education, including short-term training, to students, faculty and civil servants through the 19 ACEs.“I am excited to support these pioneering centers of excellence be Show Less -

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2014 – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved funds to help the Republic of Togo boost access to health, education, and water services and provide school feeding... Show More + in the country’s poorest areas. The project’s activities will be implemented through 2016 and are expected to benefit 125,250 people during this period, of which half are women and girls.The US$12.1 million IDA credit provides additional financing to scale up the successful activities of the Community Development and Safety Nets Project (PDCplus). The PDCplus aims to improve access to basic services such as health, education, and water for the country’s most vulnerable households by supporting new community infrastructure, while at the same time helping to strengthening the country’s social safety nets system. Togo’s Government will provide $US 2.1 million in parallel with the additional financing to further expand PDCplus activities. The additional financing is expected to support Show Less -

LOME, February 28, 2014—A high level regional workshop on the World Bank Group's Women, Business and the Law project which began on February 27 here in Togo, concluded with renewed commitment to gender... Show More + parity today. Eleven African economies participated in this event: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.The joint World Bank and IFC project, Women, Business and the Law 2014: Removing Restrictions to Enhance Gender Equality, finds that Sub-Saharan Africa is the region that has reformed the most over the past 50 years. Restrictions on women’s property rights and on their ability to make legal decisions were reduced by more than half from 1960 to 2010. The report, which was released in September 2013, also shows that among West African economies, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Togo have introduced significant reforms over the last two years in the following indicators: accessing institutions, Show Less -

WASHINGTON, February 19, 2014 – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved support to Togo that will help the country offer lifesaving health and nutrition services to over 1.3 million... Show More + people, nearly 60 percent of whom are women and girl children under the age of five.The new IDA* grant of US$14 million for the Togo Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition Services (MCHNP, or PASMIN in French) Project will focus on lowering the child mortality rate, which has remained high at 123 deaths per thousand, and on saving the lives of mothers, many of whom are tragically lost due to childbirth-related causes.The project will be implemented over four years and could save as many as 17,000 lives during this period, while also paving the way for continued improvement in Togo’s monitoring and management of essential public health services. “I am delighted that we are able to support Togo in one of its most important undertakings, which is to deliver much-needed basic health and Show Less -

KHARTOUM, December 18, 2013 - The World Bank and the Government of Sudan signed today a US$7.73 million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to support the country’s efforts to promote the... Show More + adoption of sustainable land and water management practices through the Sudan Sustainable Natural Resources Management Project (SSNRMP). The project’s integrated approach addresses the sustainable management of natural resources to improve livelihoods and landscapes. As the poorest 40 percent of the population derive their livelihoods from the agriculture and livestock sectors, the project is centered on these communities whose lives are inextricably linked to environmental challenges. By supporting sustainable land and water management practices, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystems rehabilitation, SSNRMP aims to reduce the impacts of land degradation, create sustainable alternative livelihoods, and provide the basis for long-term stability.Sudan recognized the importance of n Show Less -

Global partnership to protect tropical forests expanded with eight new countriesGENEVA, Switzerland, December 16, 2013 – In a further boost for global efforts to combat climate change and tropical deforestation,... Show More + Norway has pledged $100 million to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), the World Bank administered facility that was set up to compensate developing countries for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions achieved by preserving their forests. “This latest support to the FCPF is a vote of confidence in an initiative that will show that tropical forests are worth far more alive than dead,” said Rachel Kyte, World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development. “Increasingly, the world recognizes that paying tropical countries for verified success in keeping their forests standing is critical to combating climate change.”The FCPF consists of two funds: The Readiness Fund (now at US$360 million) provides grant financing to countries to develop their national str Show Less -

World Bank’s New Open Budgets Portal Creates Visual Access to Countries’ Budget DataWASHINGTON, December 16, 2013– The World Bank is launching a new Open Budgets Portal as part of its efforts to advance... Show More + fiscal transparency and open data around the world. High-quality budget data that can be easily accessed, visually compelling and used by a wide variety of stakeholders is essential to inform the decision making processes around public expenditures, and help citizens know how and where governments are spending their money.The Portal showcases a subset of countries and state governments that have released their entire public spending datasets and are disseminating them in accessible formats. This information will help evidence-based monitoring, analysis, and advocacy so citizens can hold their governments accountable for more efficient spending and improved services. Access to high quality budget data supports the work of governments, civil society, media and development partners - all o Show Less -

WASHINGTON, December 5, 2013 - The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved a US$14 million International Development Association (IDA)* credit to boost the Government of Togo’s efforts... Show More + to enhance public finance management, and strengthen economic governance and growth in a variety of sectors central to Togo’s economy, such as agriculture, mining, banking and telecommunications. “Togo has good prospects for sustained economic growth due to its abundant supplies of high quality phosphate, a favorable climate for agriculture, a natural deep sea port and a dynamic commerce sector,” said World Bank Country Director for Togo Madani M. Tall. “The depth and severity of poverty in Togo has increased. Today’s operation focuses on a set of policy reforms that target the most destitute and that are expected to promote widespread income growth, job creation and poverty reduction.”Today’s financing will support Togo’s Sixth Economic Growth and Governance Credit (EGGC-6), and i Show Less -

OUAGADOUGOU, October 31, 2013 – The World Bank will help the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to improve the region’s disease surveillance and response system across 15 member countries... Show More + with a new grant of US$10 million through the Africa Catalytic Growth Fund.In 2008-2009, 14 of the 15 ECOWAS countries experienced at least one outbreak of meningitis, and half experienced two outbreaks. The number of meningitis cases tripled during this period. The project will build the capacity to identify outbreaks at an early stage and take action at both the local and regional levels.“Disease outbreaks take a heavy toll across West Africa, spreading across borders and putting millions of lives and livelihoods at risk,” said Trina S. Haque, Sector Manager for World Bank Health, Nutrition and Population in West and Central Africa. “Reporting and containing these outbreaks will help people in disease-prone areas to protect themselves and their children from diseases that can be deep Show Less -

Washington, D.C., October 29, 2013—Governments around the world significantly stepped up their pace of improving business regulations in 114 economies last year – an 18 percent jump from the previous year... Show More + – laying the groundwork for local entrepreneurs to expand their work, according to the new World Bank Group publication Doing Business released today. It is the 11th in a series of annual reports on the ease of doing business, and it documented 238 business regulatory reforms worldwide last year.Doing Business 2014: Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises finds that the pace of business regulatory reform continues to accelerate following the financial crisis of 2008–09. The report says that if economies around the world were to follow best practices in regulatory processes for starting a business, entrepreneurs would spend 45 million fewer days each year satisfying bureaucratic requirements.“A better business climate that enables entrepreneurs to build th Show Less -

WASHINGTON, October 15, 2013 – The World Bank today signed a US$4.6 million grant agreement to establish a regional innovation hub for the World Bank Sahel and West Africa Program (SAWAP) that supports... Show More + the Great Green Wall -- an African initiative that promotes sustainable land use practices across vulnerable dryland countries.The new project dubbed BRICKS -- Building Resilience through Innovation, Communication and Knowledge Services – will provide operational, technical and knowledge services to 12 countries under SAWAP that are implementing or preparing large-scale investment operations. These countries include Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan and Togo.The grant is funded by the Global Environment Facility, and the agreements were signed in Washington by Colin Bruce, World Bank Director for Strategy and Operations in the Africa Region, and the leaders of the three implementing agencies that will implement the BRICKS project Show Less -

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2013 - The World Bank Group committed a record US$14.7 billion in fiscal year 2013 (July 2012 to June 2013) to support economic growth and better development prospects in Africa despite... Show More + uncertain economic conditions in the rest of the global economy.“The region has shown remarkable resilience in the face of a global recession and continues to grow strongly,” said Makhtar Diop, World Bank Vice President for the Africa Region. “Africa is at the center of the World Bank Group 2030 goals of ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity, in an environmentally, socially, and fiscally sustainable manner.”The World Bank Group continued its strong commitment to Africa approving $8.25 billion in new lendng for nearly 100 projects this fiscal year (FY13). These commitments include a record $8.2 billion in zero-interest credits and grants from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries. This is the high Show Less -

NAIROBI, July 12, 2013 – While Kenya has made tremendous progress recently by reducing child mortality and getting more children into school, new data published today suggest that raising the quality of... Show More + public education and health services is essential to build on these gains. Otherwise, far too many children will attend school without learning enough and too many patients leave clinics without the right treatment.Service Delivery Indicators (SDI)—based on independent surveys of 5,000 teachers and health providers in 600 primary schools and clinics—show that Kenya is doing relatively well on making textbooks, medical equipment, and basic infrastructure available in facilities. But the country is still far from achieving optimal performance by teachers and health providers, the SDI data show. SDI is an Africa-wide initiative led by the World Bank, the African Economic Research Consortium, and the African Development Bank.“While it is true that education and health services are not perfe Show Less -

NAIROBI, June 26, 2013 - The latest World Bank review of policies and institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa shows an overall stable environment for growth and poverty reduction despite divergence across countries.... Show More + The review is part of the annual World Bank Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) that rates the performance of poor countries. Since 1980, CPIA ratings have been used to determine countries’ allocation of zero-interest financing under the International Development Association,* the World Bank Group’s fund for the world’s poorest countries.The scores of 11 countries rose by 0.1 points or more, reflecting a strengthened policy agenda, and the indexes of another 12 countries declined by at least 0.1 points. Cape Verde and Kenya had the highest scores, although Cape Verde saw a decline in its CPIA for the third year in a row. South Sudan and Eritrea—both countries that suffer deep policy challenges—had the lowest scores. Countries recovering from conflict—such as Cote Show Less -

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2013 - The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors today approved a US$14 million IDA* grant to support the Government of Togo’s efforts to rehabilitate roads, drains and other infrastructure,... Show More + to scale-up urban services, and strengthen the capacity of institutions.“Togo, together with most countries in West Africa, suffered from heavy precipitation and flooding during the fall of 2010 rainy season,” said Madani M. Tall, World Bank Country Director for Togo. “The proposed rehabilitation works will improve access to basic services and contribute to creating jobs and supporting the Government in its efforts to build resiliency to future flooding impacts.” The funds will support the on-going Emergency Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Energy Project (EIREP). The project has two components: the first, rehabilitating infrastructure such as drains, canals and gutters, is aimed at reducing the number of people affected by periodic flooding in low-lying poor ne Show Less -

WASHINGTON, May 30, 2013 - The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors today approved US$30 million each in IDA* credits to support the Government of Mauritania and Government of Togo’s efforts to strengthen... Show More + telecommunications connectivity through expansion of fiber-optic broadband networks and introduction of legal and regulatory reforms to promote robust private sector competition. The investments are expected to expand access, improve quality and reliability of voice and Internet communications, serve as the backbone for greater private sector investment in ICT services and dramatically drive down costs, as has been the experience in other African countries. “We want to harness Africa’s ongoing ICT revolution to address the development challenges confronting West African states,” said Colin Bruce, World Bank Director for Regional Integration. “High capacity, reliable, regional broadband networks can enable communications, commerce and trade in services across borders. Show Less -

Despite tough challenges in fragile countries, World Bank analysis reveals glimmers of hopeWASHINGTON, May 1, 2013—Despite enduring political and economic challenges, 20 fragile and conflict-affected states... Show More + have recently met one or more targets under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and an additional six countries are on track to meet individual targets ahead of the 2015 deadline, according to a new analysis by the World Bank Group released today. The figures stand in stark contrast to only two years ago, when the 2011 World Development Report on Conflict, Security and Development reported that no low-income fragile or conflict-affected country had achieved a Millennium Development Goal (MDG). The analysis was released today in a paper prepared for the “Fragility Forum” event held at the World Bank and comes as the Bank embarks on a series of internal reforms to leverage its effectiveness in fragile and conflict-affected states.“This should be a wake- up call to the globa Show Less -

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2013 – Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is likely to reach more than 5 percent on average in 2013-2015 as a result of high commodity prices worldwide and strong consumer... Show More + spending on the continent, ensuring that the region remains amongst the fastest growing in the world -- according to the World Bank’s latest Africa’s Pulse, a twice-yearly analysis of the issues shaping Africa’s economic prospects. In 2012, about a quarter of African countries grew at 7 percent or higher and a number of African countries, notably Sierra Leone, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Rwanda, are among the fastest growing in the world. The new World Bank report forecasts that medium-term growth prospects remain strong and will be supported by a gradually improving world economy, consistently high commodity prices, and more investment in regional infrastructure, trade, and business growth. Welcoming the new assessment that Africa continues to grow faster t Show Less -

WASHINGTON, March 8, 2013 – Despite the steady economic growth in many African countries over the last few years, gains have not always translated into greater gender equality or poverty reduction, the... Show More + World Bank announced today. To mark International Women’s Day, the World Bank’s Africa region launched two evidence based initiatives to step up its commitment to improve gender programs in Africa. First is the Africa Gender Action Plan, a five year blueprint for the Bank’s gender informed activities. Next is the Gender Innovation Lab that will bring scientific solutions through rigorous impact evaluation that will transform how the World Bank will identify development solutions for some of its poorest clients. Combined, the World Bank Africa Gender Action Plan and Gender Innovation Lab will link scientific evidence to guide gender-related lending operations in Africa.“In the past decade, African countries have made some considerable strides when it co Show Less -